The Barnum–Palliser Historic District is a residential

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the List of cities in New England by population, fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Loc ...

. The area, bounded roughly by Austin Street, Myrtle Avenue, Atlantic Street, and Park Avenue, was developed by

P.T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding with James Anthony Bailey the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He w ...

to provide worker housing in the 1880s. Many of the houses were designed by Palliser, Palliser & Co., and are interesting examples of

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

, Queen Anne, and

Stick/Eastlake The Stick style was a late-19th-century American architectural style, transitional between the Carpenter Gothic style of the mid-19th century, and the Queen Anne style that it had evolved into by the 1890s. It is named after its use of linear " ...

architecture. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1982.

Description and history

The Barnum–Palliser Historic District is located about 3/4 mile south of downtown Bridgeport, just south of the railroad tracks and

Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...

. Most of the district consists of single and two-family houses on Austin, Gregory, and Atlantic Streets between Park and Myrtle Avenues. Houses are typically of wood-frame construction, and would originally have had wooden clapboard or shingled exteriors. Twenty-two of the 35 properties were designed by Palliser, Palliser & Co. One house, the Brooks-Knapp/Keating House which was built c. 1830, was moved to its current site at 349–351 Myrtle Avenue in 1878. One good example of the Pallisers' work is the James H. Jones House, at 341 Myrtle Avenue, which was built in 1878 and which seems to be an implementation of Design 23 in Palliser's "Model Homes for the People". Also notable is 373-377 Myrtle, which was the home of George and Charles Palliser. The only non-residential building in the district is the Myrtle Avenue/Jefferson School, which has a Beaux-Arts brick facade and front section and an earlier Victorian frame section in the rear which was contemporaneous to the residential development. and The area was developed by businessman P.T. Barnum in the 1880s, after he purchased the land from the estate of Ezra Wheeler in 1876. Barnum was well known for his support of the working classes, and this was one of several residential developments he funded in the city. He worked with the Pallisers, who were also involved in several residential development projects in the city.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnum Palliser Historic District National Register of Historic Places in Fairfield County, Connecticut Italianate architecture in Connecticut Queen Anne architecture in Connecticut Historic districts in Fairfield County, Connecticut Buildings and structures in Bridgeport, Connecticut Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut

Description and history

See also

References